Rome: First a Game, Now on TV

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Rome: First a Game, Now on TV

Players are able to micromanage every aspect of warfare, as well as rule the empire. The centerpiece of the game is its real-time battles, which occur on lush battlefields in vibrant 3-D. View Slideshow As video-game graphics evolve to portray increasingly realistic environments, TV producers are turning to game developers for help in re-creating history.

The History Channel is the first TV network to utilize a not-yet-released PC game to visually re-create epic battles and tell the story of key confrontations in Roman history.

Rome: Total War allows players to create epic battles based on meticulous research by the developers.

Players are able to micromanage every aspect of warfare, as well as rule the empire. The centerpiece of the game is its real-time battles, which occur on lush battlefields in vibrant 3-D. Players are able to assign orders, formations and even give pre-attack speeches to rally the virtual soldiers. There are more than 100 different types of soldiers from 20 different factions, all based on real warriors. Artificial intelligence features in the game allow combatants to behave in a lifelike manner, with the ability to run when overpowered by the opposition.

Margaret Kim, director of programming and executive producer for the History Channel's Decisive Battles show, hopes that the fresh perspective the video game brings to history will attract a new audience to the channel.

"The mission of the History Channel is to make the past come alive," Kim said. "To that end, we're always looking for ways to demonstrate the power and the excitement of history, so that our viewers can experience it on a more personal level. These graphics are a great way to bring the ancient battles to life."

In particular, the History Channel is hoping the use of video-game graphics will score points with younger viewers. Males between the ages 8 and 34 spend more time playing video games during prime-time TV hours than they do watching television, according to a recent report by Nielsen Interactive Entertainment on the television-viewing habits of gamers.

The research found that 75 percent of television households with a male between those ages owned at least one console video-game system. Nearly as many males surveyed enjoy playing video games (29 percent) as watching TV (33 percent) during their free time. Male gamers spend an average of 9.8 hours watching TV compared to 12.5 hours playing games during the course of a week.

This phenomenon is not a fad as much as a long-term trend, as video-game consoles drop in price and technology propels visuals and cinematic storytelling in games to new levels. While TV can't compete with the visual spectacles created by big-budget, computer-generated scenes in movies like the upcoming Troy, the History Channel can put viewers in the middle of battles with thousands of men hacking and slashing each other to death.

Games can also allow TV producers access to visuals that even Hollywood couldn't stage. While Decisive Battles will tell its stories through traditional interviews, drawings, paintings and re-enactments with actors, the focal point of this series is Rome: Total War.

"We've been heavily involved from the beginning," said Mike Simpson, development director at the Creative Assembly, noting that all the footage seen in the series was created following a script written by David Paradine Television, the production studio that worked with the History Channel to create the show.

Developers, Simpson said, created all the battles in the battle editor (a tool for customizing game scenarios) and choreographed the confrontations to happen exactly as they did historically.

"The benefit of this particular computer technology is that you can see a huge overview of the battlefield, the vast numbers of troops and their formations," said the History Channel's Kim. "Other techniques such as re-enactments give a different, somewhat limited perspective, though those techniques have their value as well."

In one episode, Decisive Battles puts viewers in the middle of the battlefield where Hannibal and his vastly outnumbered troops completely surround the Roman army in the Battle of Cannae. The computer animation provides an overview of the battlefield and illustrates the contrast between the classic Roman column formation and Hannibal's crescent-shaped defense. Viewers can visualize just how that unusual formation enabled Hannibal to trap and defeat the Romans in the classic battle of double envelopment. Once encircled, the Roman legions were pressed so tightly against each other that they were helpless against Hannibal's infantry and his Libyan spearmen.

As developers continue to create games that allow players to relive and rewrite history, Decisive Battles should be the first of many creative partnerships between game developers and TV networks.

"We're pioneering something new in this series, and we'll see how it evolves," said Kim. "The gaming industry is one of the fastest-growing, and it's likely that we'll see more convergence between video games and programming in the future."

Mike De Plater, creative director of the Creative Assembly, said that the Total War engine can provide sets to use as backdrops for productions besides historical military re-enactments. Many of the things that only the highest-budget films can currently afford will become available to any TV production company with a small budget.

"No need to worry about locations and sets – the whole world exists and is there to pick and choose from," De Plater said. "The possibilities are endless, and this isn't wild conjecture. It's inevitable, and not that far away."

The Creative Assembly, which also lent its technology to a BBC series called Time Commanders, said it is currently in talks with another TV production house about an additional show.